Links: Tuesday, November 19th

The Disconnectionists – Nathan Jurgenson takes on the idea of the “digital detox” – where a person unplugs from Twitter, Facebook and email and subsequently discovers their “real” self – and why it’s a bunch of nonsense.

Such rhetoric is common. Op-eds, magazine articles, news programs, and everyday discussion frames logging off as reclaiming real social interaction with your real self and other real people. The R in IRL. When the digital is misunderstood as exclusively “virtual,” then pushing back against the ubiquity of connection feels like a courageous re-embarking into the wilderness of reality. When identity performance can be regarded as a by-product of social media, then we have a new solution to the old problem of authenticity: just quit. Unplug — your humanity is at stake! Click-bait and self-congratulation in one logical flaw.

Movers, Shakers, and History Makers – Historical romance author Edie Harris talks about the “death” of historical romance and the conventional wisdom that anything that isn’t a regency won’t sell.

Which I realize is, in itself, hard. How do you find these authors and stories if they’re not being aggressively marketed or pimped or reviewed or, hell, sold in accessible areas (e.g., Barnes & Noble, grocery stores, etc.)? How, too, do you find these authors and stories if you’ve convinced yourself they don’t exist? We are often our own worst enemy simply by not being open to new things.

I’m guilty of this in my reading all the time. I suffer from what we all suffer: a lack of time coupled with a lack of trust. If I’m limited in the time I can spend reading for pleasure, why would I risk that time with an author I didn’t trust to give me an interesting story, compelling characters, and satisfying HEA? But as a new author fighting against the Great Slump, I needed to see if there were other novels providing kicks to the base of that mountain of distrust.

When I first came out publicly as bisexual in 2010, I was prepared for the onslaught of biphobia that I knew would follow. What I wasn’t prepared for was the mind-boggling things some people believe about bisexuals. I’ve been asked questions and had accusations levelled at me that truly beggar belief. What follows is a list of ten myths about bisexuality that I have, at some point in my life, had presented to me as though they were actual fact.

A much needed discussion started on Twitter on November 15, 2013. We hope able bodied people will listen. Thank you to whoever started this- I think it is @nealcarter!. Thank you to my friend Amy for telling me about it. I had a lot to get off my chest. What did you learn that you didn’t know?

This is Autism (for me) – Autism Speaks made another public policy statement that was full of language that marginalized those with autism. Willaful, a book blogger and mother of an autistic child, writes a lovely rebuttal.

We interrupt our irregularly scheduled romance novel conversation to participate in a Flashblog. This is a response to a recent “Autism Speaks” fear-mongering money grab declaration that autism is an overwhelming tragedy which inevitably leads to broken parents and destroyed lives.

The experience of autism is actually very different for each family — and for each autistic person. And no, it’s not all unicorns farting rainbows for anyone, and as with any disability, support and accommodations are vital. But denying the personhood of autistic people to get money for an organization with dubious goals doesn’t sit well with a lot of people. And we want to share what autism looks like in our world.

Ridley

An ice hockey fan from north of Boston and the genre's most beloved troll, Ridley enjoys reading contemporary and historical romance, as well as the odd erotica novel. As someone who uses a wheelchair, she takes a particular interest in disability themes.

2 Responses to “Links: Tuesday, November 19th”

I can understand the impulse to separate online life from “real life,” but it’s seriously misguided. I do think it’s easy to fall into spending more time than you need/want online, and I find I have to recalibrate if I’m online too much because I lose my ability to concentrate when I’m doing non-online things.

But the online world is every bit as real as everything else in a person’s life. It’s hard to think about inhabiting a non-corporeal space in a “real” way, but that’s what we’re doing, and we build and participate in real communities there. That’s one of the reasons I get impatient with the argument that online friends aren’t “real” friends. Yes, they are.

Love in the Margins is a group romance blog trying to hit on the love stories that represent us all. We welcome discussion and criticism as we read through the stories of those whose lives don’t fit into the neat and tidy box labeled “default.”